This invention relates in general to telephone receivers and more particularly to an attachment for a telephone handset which comfortably accommodates a telephone user wearing earrings.
The discomfort that accompanies application of a telephone receiver to an ear wearing an earring is well known. Because of the pressure of the telephone receiver against the earring, women commonly remove one of the earrings before using the telephone receiver. In addition to the inconvenience this causes, the earring that is removed can easily be lost.
This problem has been recognized, and various techniques have been proposed to allow the telephone receiver to be used while the earring remains in place on the ear lobe. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,231,688 to Ugartechea discloses a telephone earpiece having a recess into which the earring can fit in order to avoid the application of pressure to it. However, oversize earrings are too large to fit into the recess, and the size of the recess thus presents a limit as to the earring size that can be accommodated. In addition, the earpiece has a complicated shape which makes it difficult to produce and also detracts from its acoustical performance. Another drawback is that the device must be completely detached from the telephone receiver before the normal earpiece can be used. When the device is loose from the receiver, it can be lost or misplaced so that it is unavailable for use.